According to plans by Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), the Federal Police are to be equipped with electric shock devices. "I am convinced that the use of Tasers by our police is absolutely necessary," Dobrindt told the Funke Media Group newspapers (Sunday editions).
He will ensure that the Federal Police "is quickly equipped with Tasers and that the necessary legal framework for this is put in place quickly this year."
The minister intends to provide the funds for the procurement of so-called distance electro-impulse devices (DEIG). Dobrindt said the Taser is "a suitable means of responding to the increased threat to police in public spaces." It functions "exactly at the interface between the baton as a close-quarters weapon and the pistol as a long-range weapon."
Especially when people attacked federal police officers with stabbing weapons such as knives, the officers could "eliminate the attackers more effectively" and "protect themselves better," argued the Federal Minister of the Interior.
In the US, electric shock devices have been in use for a long time; in Germany, they have been used by police officers on regular patrol duty in some states for a few years now. Tasers fire wires containing arrow-shaped projectiles. These projectiles pierce the skin and deliver electric shocks that incapacitate the victim. This is intended to avoid the use of firearms.
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